Hong Kong student leaders' 'fatigue' hindered fight against HKU disaffiliation vote
Post-Occupy "fatigue" left a key player in the protests, the Federation of Students, unable to act promptly to snuff out campaigns to split the organisation, its former leader says.
Post-Occupy "fatigue" left a key player in the protests, the Federation of Students, unable to act promptly to snuff out campaigns to split the organisation, its former leader says.
Alex Chow Yong-kang, whose term as general secretary of the city's largest and most influential student body ended on Tuesday, said his team was "recovering" from the 79-day sit-ins when University of Hong Kong students began a push to disaffiliate.
"We were all suffering from fatigue," Chow said of the HKU disaffiliation drive, which began in January, a month after the Occupy camps were cleared. "Everyone became inactive. It was also hard to mobilise people to hit back at the criticisms."
The federation triggered the sit-ins at the end of a week-long class boycott in September.
But students who initiated the HKU campaign - which ended with a vote for its student union to disaffiliate in February - accused federation leaders of making hasty decisions with little transparency during Occupy.
By the time he and his colleagues acted, Chow said, false information about the federation had been spread.
With students at four more universities planning similar votes, Chow is calling for unity.
"This year, the reshuffling of the universities' governing bodies is going to be politicised," he said, citing the example of HKU's council, to which Occupy critic and Executive Council member Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung was appointed last month.
"We anticipate liberal scholars, especially those who took part in Occupy, will be oppressed. It's important student unions from different universities form a united front."
A united student voice will also be needed when lawmakers vote on political reform and around district council elections this year and next year's Legislative Council poll, Chow added.
